Christmas Homily 2012

     "Once in Royal David's City" is hands down my most beloved Christmas Hymn. Aside from the beautiful music it is written to, the words provoke much contemplation about the mystery of Christmas and leaves the listener, or singer, helpless against the urge to wonder in awe. This Advent, I made it a personal 'theme' of mine in prayer and in my preaching to the parish a particular line from the hymn. It is the first line in particular from my favorite verse:

And our Eyes at last shall see him

Through His own redeeming love

For that Child so dear and gentle

Is Our Lord in Heaven above

And He leads his children on

To the place where He is gone

      Seeing. Isn't that what Advent was all about? Each of us has been preparing to gaze upon the face of the infant Jesus this night - the face of God, the face of Love. 

    
      What do we desire to gaze upon? What do we wish above all else that we could behold? In times of emptiness, loneliness, fear and insecurity, what do we desire to soothe us?

    

      In the darkness and stillness of this Holy Night, our eyes at last see what we need and hunger for. Born this night is the fulfillment of every human heart and desire. Because sinfulness has brought us un-fulfillment, alienation, a myriad of suffering and desolation to varying degrees, we need the presence of something whole, beautiful and true. 

     This night we behold that which was robbed from us in the egregious act of original sin: Life; life to the full and life that makes us full. It was at that first Christmas where we saw the shimmer of Love glistening upon the human heart. It was this Love made flesh that every human soul searched for for centuries. It was This infant, this innocent and vulnerable child, that was the answer to every question of doubt and anguish. It was His promise that we would find in Him everything. It is in the presence of this infant child that everything we need and desire is found!

     Is this idealistic or for the pious? No. He is for everyone, and everyone needs Him. This isn’t just some nice thing that Christians find comfort in or some formula to anesthetize us from the pains and unflattering truths of this world. Jesus is for everyone and everyone needs Him and His presence. The existence of pagan mythologies, plethora of world religions and every other attempt by man to search for and construct god and gods is proof that man, regardless of background, is universally craving this vision of God. For it is in this presence of the infant that we become whole again and find our true wholeness. 

     The infant Jesus, in his crying, cooing and cawing, contains in His entirety what every man, woman and child needs and longs for. He is the reason for great rejoicing this festive and hope-filled time of year. 

     His birth shows us that the Love of an other said yes to Life and allowed the baby to be born, bringing with Him Love to those He will be around. Life necessitates Love, and Love cannot help but bring Life. 

     What do we need to see? Love. What do we need? Life. With the events of this Holy Night, we see and we live! We sit in the manger beside the Holy Family, shepherds, angels and kings in silence just looking, watching, gazing upon the face of Love made flesh. 

     It is a great mystery, one that requires us each year to call to mind these events in a special way to remind us of what we were made for and what completes us. We live lives often drastically void of any semblance of the quiet manger scene and the serenity of the loving touch of Jesus. Let us take advantage of this season of Christmas to carry us forward and make us strong in our commitment to both Love and Life in our world, nation, home and hearts. 

     And our eyes at last shall see Him. We have come to Bethlehem, let us now look upon our Lord and let all other things melt away as we sit in awe and wonder of His presence. 

Nothing to lose and everything to gain: 33rd Sunday, OTB

So much of popular Christian literature and culture is wrapped in the theme of the rapture, the Second Coming, the End Times. Quite often, those who make the attempt to produce films or author novels about such themes are rarely rooted in anything steeped in Tradition or Truth.

It's quite popular to portray end times or the end of the world as some hybrid of the plagues of Exodus, amplified with 20th century carnage and warfare. When, in reality, this is not an accurate representation of any truth found within Sacred Scripture, nor the ongoing Tradition of the Church.

So what are the real end times? What will it mean and what will happen? It probably shouldn't be a surprise that the answer is "I don't know". It should be music to the ears of the Catholic who recognizes that almost everything of our faith is cemented in the Mystery of a Triune God who was incarnate of a Virgin, suffered death and rose from the clutches of the underworld to bring all men to Himself. If you can somehow condense all that and make simple sense of it all, then you truly do not believe!

That is a great charism of our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church - we embrace mystery, we find solace within the endless chambers of the the Heart of God.

When we read these passages in the Scriptures that alludes to the End Times, let us not get ourselves all worked up over some looming destruction and hell-hot coals consuming our earthly flesh; rather, let us truly understand the impetus of Jesus' words.

Jesus' sermon has now turned to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The destruction would take place 40 years after this great sermon in the year 70AD. It was in that generation that they would witness the horrendous destruction of the center of all Jewish sacrifice and life. There has not been a sacrifice offered by any Jew since that very day.

Within the Temple were endless displays of celestial ornamentation, paintings, weavings, tapestries and symbolism that gave the Jewish people a visual reminder of the constant presence of the God of the universe in their midst and that indeed this is where the heavens kissed the earth.

And it is from the destruction in 70AD that the Jews await their messiah - their King - to come and rebuild the Temple, defeat the enemies of chosen people and to rule for all time and make jerusalem the capital of creation. It is a restoration of the rubbled Old that they await for.

We Christians, specifically Catholics, await for a fulfillment, for the New Earth and the New Jerusalem. We await the coming of our King at the end of the Ages to come and rule over Heaven and Earth where He will reign in every galaxy, solar system, planet, continent, nation, community and heart. When He comes, He wont rebuild, He will transform!

We await the fulfillment of the New Covenant itself where every sin and sleep of death will be obliterated by the light of His reign and will be no more. It is where we will be face to face with our King, and a 'cushy, fluffy, weak, homemade, feel good, spiritual but not religious, it doesn't matter what I do cause God loves me anyways life of nonsense' will no longer cut it. Nor will the 'fundamentalist bible thumper kind either where ignorance of the Truth and depth of Scripture is encouraged' - It will be about His Church, His Law, His Commandments and His Truth.

We will come to finally come to see that our parish really is connected to the Church which is the Body of Christ extending every outpost of time and space where membership is eternal. It is through His Church, just like through His Temple, that the real presence will be fulfilled on earth. His reign will be so mighty and bright that the sun will fade into darkness. It will be blinding - that's why souls go through purgatory, preparing to gaze upon that light of the King.

That is why we need to be vigilant, because we know not the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come. We need to be prepared to stand, not only in front of Him and beam with joy in the presence of His light, but along side Him as one body united in Truth and Love.

What will all this look like? Entail? Our transfigured bodies and world: what will they look and feel like?

Truthfully, it doesn't really matter. Those details wont change their reality or their imminence. What does matter is that we live lives as virtuous Catholics, ardently defending our Church, our God,  and the Truth of Jesus Christ. Though the Jews are waiting for something we don't believe will ever happen, we need to remain united to them, not only as our great brothers and sisters of the Old Covenant and of antiquity, but their passion for the presence of God as the center of their lives - as seen in the Temple.

The truth is, our King will come! We are in those end times, after the destruction and waiting for the new. But these are not days of waiting for destruction, vengeance, pestilence and red rivers throughout the lands. We are in a period of waiting for Love enfleshed to stand in our midst and kill every evil. Our King, born to us as a baby, died for us on a tree, will come to hold us close in the warmth of his embrace and allow us to hear the beating of His heart.

We have nothing to fear and everything to gain if we live a life deserving of that King and His victory. Perfection may never be achieved in our lives, but an ardent desire to love God and follow His will is definitely what we can achieve.

What is the Greatest Commandment? LOVE!

Priesthood is a busy life! I have not found the time, nor carved it out, to write as often as I would like. But, I feel that I don't want to let this free moment go by without offering a little reflection on this Sunday's beautiful and rich Scripture and our elections this week...

Perhaps it is yet another one of those great mysteries of our Faith as to why great tragedies happen in our lives as individuals and as a people, this past week was not shy from offering us another such mystery. Hurricane Sandy just caused utter destruction and devastation to so many of our brothers and sisters on the East coast, neighborhoods obliterated, lives lost, memories washed away. It is within the pondering of man to seek the meaning behind the brevity of such things in our lives and the reality of eternity we dwell within. All suffering must be processed through the Crucifixion of our Lord and the Kingdom He has opened for us - any effort short of Christ will fail. Truth.

What this tragedy, as with others I can recall, did was to bring people back to their roots of common humanity. Communities that were once a collection of individuals, have become bodies of cooperation and charity. We have seen this past week the truth of who we are come through. We have seen political adversaries together arm in arm fighting for the welfare of their fellow man with no political filter or campaign stump. It is remarkable that Mr. Romney and Obama ceased campaigning this week for a few days. If politics were so important and defining to an individual, then why did they stop? Out of sensitivity? They stopped to be sensitive! THey stopped because ultimately none of those artificial divides mean anything. We are not Democrat and Republican. Those are made up terms to further divide and conquer a people. I can declare my self a "Jupiter Zambonni" and it holds as much weight in eternity as does our Democrat and Republican labels do.

I am not trying to be angry or pessimistic about government and the practice of law and policy - those are necessary entities in a well ordered society. But, there is a right way and a wrong way to understand it and live it out.

This week we're going to hear a lot about party politics, the economy, jobs, Benghazi, Medicare / Medicaid, HHS Mandate, the 'war on women', etc.,etc.,etc.. I can almost guarantee there will almost no utterance of the Gospel, the Crucifixion, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, Natural Law, Salvation, Eternity, The Good, the True, the Beautiful! We live in a society that is both afraid and ignorant of what is truly real and meaningful. It is the easy way out to just blame others for our problems, to puff up our egos and make others inferior, to deny others the Love they deserve so that I can seek my own power and gain.

What is the greatest commandment? LOVE! Love your fellow man as if you can see the very image of God impressed on their soul. Love your community as a microcosm of the great and magnificent Body of Christ. Love your family for the Trinitarian Love it reflects. Love your God who loved you so much He came to walk among us and allowed HImself to experience every degree of human suffering and pain and willingly let His persecutors nail him to a pice of wood in utter agony just so we could be with Him for eternity. Love your God everywhere and everyday!

Husbands and wives just don't love each other in the privacy of their homes and hate each other in public. Men don't love and respect their wives and children at the dinner table and then beat them and ridicule them at the store. Its absurd to love in some places and not all places; to love sometimes and not all the time!

LOVE! Be people madly in love with life, each other and with God. Let that show and be the engine and thrust of our very essence and being. The moment we let artificial boundaries, labels, divisions, prejudices and politics get in the way of Love - that is sin! If I don't allow myself to love as I've been commanded and as a response to the unimaginable love we've been given by God, then I am falling into sin and promoting hatred and darkness. That is not the path to eternal life, it just isn't.

It is sad that we need tragedy to bring us back to our roots and down to our knees in humble awe at the true beauty of our humanity and of Love. Let us take this experience of seeing the truth of Love and humanity and run with it. Let us take it into our daily lives and not suspend it or jeopardize it for anything our anyone. We have been called to love totally in all times nad places, let us not fall into the traps of sin that tells us to defy our consciences and our beliefs for some finite and fickle cause.

26th Sunday, OT year B

So often, we become over zealous in pointing out and scrutinizing the faults of others, the differences among us and segmenting each other into artificial categories. We do this all the while proclaiming our excellence and making our lives the marker for others to follow. This is such a prevalent and easy habit to fall into in our culture, and perhaps for many cultures over many millennia.

What makes this such an issue, especially in light of this weekend's readings is that this attitude towards life is the direct result of sin and thus perpetuates sin among our brothers and sisters. This leads us to not uniting in Christ, but instilling hate and resentment and setting people up to hate each other and themselves - this is not the message of the Gospel.

The first reading and the Gospel give us episodes of people running to Moses and Jesus reporting about others preaching in God's name. Both Moses and Jesus gives sort of a "don't worry about it" response and sends the message "worry about getting yourself to heaven with your brothers and sisters"and a little less critiquing.

Jesus goes further and hyperbolically exclaims that it is better to cut off our limbs and enter eternity maimed than to enter Hell intact.

If you don't believe that we do this, just examine every institution, media outlet, chamber of government, workplace and household - it happens all the time. From instead of debating the various philosophies of governing, conservatives are told to hate liberals and liberals hate conservatives. Instead of people of different faiths and creeds dialoging to come to a fuller understanding of their purpose in the mind of the universe, we're bread to hate and sometimes kill them. Instead of having a family meeting to discuss an issue in the household, we create divisions and factions to the point of exponential divorce rates and domestic violence.

Sin, at its very root, is turning in on ourselves with little to no regard for those around us, our brothers and sisters, the ones we love.

Scripture is clear that conquering sin, living for God, leading others to the Truth of God, establishing a world aflame with Love is our primary focus and mission. We are responsible for the salvation of those we minister to and are in contact with. It is not just the job of the priest to get us to heaven, but it's everyone's. Husbands are responsible for the salvation of their wives and vise versa. Family members, siblings, friends, loved ones, colleagues, strangers: we are responsible for their salvation. Failure to do so makes amputation of our limbs more desirable.

Scary? Sure. Real? We better believe it. Christ has won for us eternal life - the door is open. But we need to live lives worthy of that victory Christ won on the cross. We need to follow the path to that portal by living lives of virtue and bringing others along with us.

BE the change

In my senior year of high school, the senior class had to pick a quote to put in the yearbook underneath your photograph. It's an assignment that some take seriously, some view as an opportunity to be outlandish and others just refuse to submit anything. I was one who, in being someone who collected quotes, looked forward to this task for my entire senior year. The quote i picked is one I remember wanting to use for months, but where I found it, I cannot remember. It is a simple quote, one that many have probably heard, but is one that has stuck with me through now into my priesthood. The quote is:

"Be the change you wish to see in the world"

~Mahatma Gandhi 

I always envisioned myself being this renegade, this crusader who valiantly saved the world from every evil, war, pestilence and corrupt ideology - I wanted to embody that change to the point of affecting every aspect of the globe. These were high expectations, I knew, but I was able to see so many problems in the world and I intuitively knew solutions to all of them. There was almost nothing I didn't have a cure for or a method to get to the utopia we all yearn for. This yearning, this desire, came along with me into the priesthood.

All through the seminary, in varying degrees over time, being this salvific change was always on my mind and in my heart. Over the years of seminary and formation, it got tempered, but never left. As the days got closer and closer to priesthood, I began to see my desire to be the change I wished to see in the  world coming closer to fruition. 

I dont want you to get the wrong impression that I answered the call to the priesthood to change the world into my utopia, not even close. The priesthood is a vocation a man is called to by God and over years of formation and discernment he comes to say Yes to laying his self down for the love of the Church (to put it very simply). But there was always a little bit of "super hero"mentality that told me that perhaps you could "do" more when you're a priest. 

Being a priest now for just shy of 4 months, I see just how naive I was in interpreting Gandhi's words. 

Almost everyday now, as a priest, I am faced with a situation or scenario where I simply do not know what to do or how to solve the problems presented to me. I know what I want and what direction people should go in to solve the issues life has thrown at them, but how to do that, I don't always know. 

I want to solve everybody's problems, heal all their wounds, make all their demons go away, get them to good health - I want to be the one to give them the change they desire AND that is where I went wrong with that quote.

The sacrament of Orders gives a man a phenomenal amount of grace to live out this vocation (this is a topic too large for right now) and changes his very soul - BUT it doesn't make him Thor! As much as a man wants to DO something, he is called to BE CHRIST! 

Nothing you do as a priest, you do as yourself - it is a total unification to Christ and a total self gift to your love, your bride, the Church. When someone comes to the priest, they are coming to Christ. That is such an easy thing to say, but perhaps the biggest challenge -at least for me - of the priesthood. 

So how do I "be the change" I wish to see in the world? I simply have to be Christ. That can't be an excuse for laziness or passivity, it has to be a call to action - an action of the presence of Christ. The change I've been called to give is not the product of my physical skills, but that of my ontological change! The world will not and cannot be changed without Christ - period, end of the debate. No ideology or party or man can bring true change to the world - the change that satiates the desires of our souls - but the presence of God. Never has this been made clearer to me since becoming a priest.

So can priests not bring about change in the world? They most definitely can, but not in some Marvel Comic type of way. As a priest, when people come to you looking for health of mind, body and soul, they asking God to come to them, let them know they are loved and precious, let them know that they are not abandoned and that with Christ they will conquer anything. 

It is not my elbow grease, but my presence - my BEing that brings about that Change. The ministry of presence is perhaps the best agent for change. In bringing that presence of Christ out into the world, to people in despair, does the world slowly begin to change and turn towards God. The change I want in the world is Christ. It is ultimately for Christ to reign in the hearts of every man woman. It is for everyone to come to feel the beating of the heart of God. I cant DO this, but I can BE and stand witness to that change. I may not be able to cure the physical ailment, but I can show them Christ who desires to go through this pain with them. 

It is hard to internalize and live - it probably will take a lifetime to begin to fully understand. But, there has been nothing more beautiful and awesome than to be with people in their darkest and most vulnerable moments and be able to help them attain that change they desire - help them to see and know the love of God. 

The Bread of Life

It's not news to the attentive ear, that the last month at Sunday masses, we heard the entirety of John chapter 6 regarding the Bread of Life. I know for me and my brother priests and deacons, that it was a great challenge to each week not spill over themes and ideas from previous or future weeks and to give a clear, crisp presentation each week.

I was hesitant to write each of the homilies out here because I was afraid of just that: saying too much one week and not having enough for the other weeks and there being proof of it here online! So, I thought it would be good to sum up some of my thoughts on that infamous chapter of John's gospel and some reflection on what this Bread - this Eucharist - really is.

What I think is the reason we can have so much doubt when it comes to the Eucharist is, not that what we claim it to be is so radical - for it is a radical claim , not that we have so many other distractions and worries in our lives - for indeed we all do, but what I think is the most difficult obstacle for us to overcome is the reality that the Eucharist is so perfect and we really have nothing else to gauge it against.

To illustrate: We all give of ourselves to the people we love. Husbands and wives, quite obviously give of themselves emotionally, spiritually and physically in such a way that the two become one flesh. Their love, their sacrifices, their desire for the other propels them to give themselves wholly to the suppose. Single people give of themselves wholly too, but not to make two into one like in marriage, but in a chaste self-offering where they love through emotional and spiritual support. They, in my opinion, have perhaps the hardest vocation because they are called to no particular person or community, but are to be lovers of all people in the world and give that sacrifice and that love to all people. The celibate is called to be a spiritual father or mother to a community, the church. They are called to offer themselves wholly and entirely for their flock so as to lead and guide them to eternal life.

All of this is true, good and beautiful, but there is an obvious limit to how much we can give wholly. For human beings, we dont privide our bodies for physical nourishment, we provide spiritual and emotional nourishment through our presence and relationships. If we are physically hungry or thirsty, your spouse, friend, pariahionrer, brother or sister is not and cnnot quench that - it is beyond what they can do for you. No one loves to the point of slicing their body up for physical nourishment! That is just sick and weird and not what we do. So there is a very obvious boundary to how we can give ourselves over for another - But, with Christ, no such boundary exists.

Christ knows no limit to the amount or the ways in which He can give of himself to us. There is no code, law, political correctness, stereotype, expectation, geography, obstacle or force for Him to overcome - Nothing prohibits God from giving Himself to us - even His very flesh and blood!

That is what this Eucharist is. That is why it can be so hard to accept. We are in the presence of and receiving the most perfect Love. We are consuming the very sacrifice that only God can give. We are accepting a Love that we cannot begin to do justice to. In the light of all of our failings, our sins, our insecurities, our struggles and addictions - Christ still pours our His blood for us to quench our thirst and still offers His flesh for us to ease our pangs.

The Eucharist is the Bread of Life simply because it is the Bread of Love. It is the only tangible presence of True Love among us, and it is only love that can give life. Not just physical life, for even two parents devoid of any love for their children can bring about physical life, but spiritual and emotional life. Only a mom and dad who constantly tells and shows love to their children will assure the  young will have true life within them. So too with the Bread of Life. It is not so much physical hunger it is seeking to alleviate - for we can in some degree live solely on it, but thats not the idea of it. Its not the Catholic way to give up all food and drink and live solely on the Eucharist - though many holy men and women have throughout the ages - but to find True Life from that food, to know what it means to live and be loved.

Its an extraordinary reality that passes our lips at every mass and that sits (unfortunately too often alone) in our churches. The God of the Universe, the God who made every atom of the cosmos, the God born of a virgin, the Logos, the God who died on a cross for us makes His very physical presence known and shown everyday all over the world. The only reason it happens is for us to feast on Love.

Then, ultimately, John presents us with a choice. Do we act as if its just yet another thing we need to do, just another symbol among the treasure chest of Catholic symbols and signs, just something that I think about on Sundays in the same stream of worldly distractions? Or do we say Yes to It and let the Bread of Life, true tangible Love to give us life, to transfigure every atom of our being, to transform human hearts and earthly institutions, to not let our faith be something hidden except for an hour on Sundays, and to let our entire selves be drowned in Love without wanting to be pulled out of the water?  That is the choice we have. To let the Eucharist do what It has the power to do is our constant struggle, our constant aim. It requires much sacrifice and being put out into the deep, but the rewards are eternal and the benefits are otherworldly. To say no to Christ and to just remain passive in the face of Love, will only make the jowls of our souls sandy with thirst and the gut of our hearts to wrench in hunger and pain.

Come to the Bread of Life. Come to the Eucharist. Feast from the table of Sacrifice. Dine at the heavenly banquet. Nourish yourself with pure and utter Love. Be transformed and transfigured. Let your fears and insecurities fade away as you embrace Life and know Love.

A month and some days

I have been a priest now for over a month, and though that doesn't sound too spectacular, it has afforded me opportunities I've waited a lifetime to experience.

Mass


I am tempted to spew out a JBC style commentary on every liturgy I've celebrated and talk through all my thoughts, fears, reactions, feelings and bewilderments in celebrating the liturgy for they are numerous and varied. I will say though that many years of discernment and 8 years of seminary and all that it entailed was worth just one mass!

I have to admit that I haven't been able to internalize what I am 'supposed' to be feeling when I am celebrating mass. I felt incredibly out of place the first few weeks - that is becoming less so now now that I am getting into a routine at the parish. It's a funny thing: having the privilege to celebrate the mass is something I have been preparing for for many years, but to actually do it you see that it is something that one can never be fully prepared for. You prepare for the mechanics of it, you discern if you are called to the altar in that capacity, but you cannot prepare for the internal workings of the Spirit. To consecrate bread and wine so that is become the BODY AND BLOOD OF GOD is too great to "prepare for". I think that every day and every mass will unfold for me the reality that I am participating in and the sacrifice I am offering.

That being said, the liturgy- the mass - has a whole new and dynamic meaning for me now and my participation has changed, not only on the level of the obvious, but internally. I "feel" closer to what is going on and I can sense the reality of it all a little bit more - it is very REAL for me now in a way that perhaps was hidden from me before. In reflecting on this only a little, I don't think that you need to be ordained a priest to have your spiritual senses heightened to what is going on in the mass and to become more engaged in it on all levels. I really want to help my people experience the depths and beauties of this most awesome reality - the mass!

Confession


"Why me?"

That's all I can say. God has chosen me, a sinner, to be His priest and be a vessel of His Mercy and Love in the sacrament of penance. When the faithful come to the sacrament, they are not coming to talk to "Fr so-and-so", they are coming to talk to Christ. They need Christ to forgive them of their sins and to come back into a relationship with God characterized by mercy. It is nothing about me that has brought them to the sacrament for it is not ME forgiving them, but God through ME - powerful and mind-blowing!

This has been - second only to the mass - the greatest joy of mine these past few weeks of priesthood. This is where I the priest have an opportunity to intimately touch the wounded-ness of individuals and let the loving mercy of God touch their hearts and bring Life back into their souls.

Wow!

In general


"It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you". These words of Christ and the words of the God to Jeremiah "Before I formed you in to womb, I knew you... a prophet to the nations, I dedicated you" have been close to my heart recently. This may be more characteristic of the diocesan priesthood than religious priests, but I was ordained and sent to a parish to work. I am finding it very easy to think to myself "what can I do" "how can I make MY mark" I and ME has been punctuating my mind a lot and I need to draw my thoughts back to the beautiful words of scripture and remind myself that I am not in this for myself. I have been ordained to be a priest of Jesus Christ and thus I need to be the priest Jesus wants me to be, not the most successful on Brandon may want to be.

I am experiencing the beautiful and rich joys of the priesthood: celebrating mass, hearing confessions, visiting the hospital, anointing the sick, praying with the dying, visiting the homebound, being a fatherly figure to a parish and being  and bringing a unique presence of God in the midst of a community. I am also experiencing the challenges: how do I plug myself into a community, what does it mean to be a priest, how do I live this out, what am I supposed to be doing,  am I being a priest for Brandon or for Christ, how do I give myself totally over to this vocation and yet not burn out???

This is an amazing vocation and an amazingly complicated vocation (as they all are). I am very young in the priesthood, but I would have to say that it has all been worth it for even just one day of it!